Saturday, August 19, 2017

Today,
we cover a mall with a possibly more optimistic future. It is a mall
which was sinking fast until a new owner came along and decided to try
to turn the mall around. The interior of the mall was overhauled, the
name was changed, and the exterior was spruced up. A new building on an
out-parcel is being built (as of posting) and no more interior or anchor stores seem to
be leaving for at least the time being. However, much of the mall is
still empty and still has a long way to go if it is going to be completely revived. It seems rare that a new owner comes in to
try to save a dying mall (and has money to invest), so it will be interesting to see how this
turns out.

The 390,834 square foot Richmond Square Mall was developed by The Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation in 1966. The original anchor stores were department stores Montgomery Ward and JCPenney along with junior anchor F.W. Woolworth Co. Montgomery Ward later became Sears (now closed) and Woolworth became OfficeMax. Dillard's would be built onto the mall later.

For whatever reason, DeBartolo also built a mall with a very similar name the same year (1966) in Richmond Heights, Ohio. That mall, was originally called Richmond Mall. Richmond Mall later rebranded as Richmond Town Square, which was an even closer name to Richmond Square Mall!

The Richmond Square Mall in Richmond, Indiana was remodeled in 1997. Dillard's was added as an anchor store in that 1997 remodel. The mall was sold off from Simon Malls in the early 2000s. It appears that the Richmond Square Mall really started struggling in the mid to late-2000s. Sears left in August 2013. A lot of the smaller stores were closed. In late 2014, the mall was put into foreclosure by Wells Fargo Bank. One year later, the mall found a new owner, the Hull Property Group.

In 2016, the mall underwent a major renovation and changed its name to Richmond Mall (the same name its one time sister mall in Ohio originally had). The remodel brought new carpeting to the mall, the vacant stores were sealed up, and new signage was installed. Anchor store wise, the mall seems to be doing fine since three of the four anchor store slots are still occupied by JCPenney, OfficeMax, and Dillard's. Also, on my visit, a new building was being built on an out-parcel (to go along with MCL Cafeteria and Olive Garden). However, the inside of the mall still appears to be struggling. There are a bunch of stores that are dry-walled over. The vacancies aren't as noticeable since the fronts of the stores are covered up with quotes and historic pictures of Richmond, Indiana. Someone I follow on Flickr does have a good album of how the mall looked prior to its remodel (https://www.flickr.com/photos/66855546@N03/albums/72157659204881123).

As for competition, there does seem to be a decent amount of retail in Richmond, but I did also notice some interesting exclusions. Big-box store wise, Richmond does have Walmart, Meijer, Menards, Lowe's, Kohl's, Kmart, and Kroger (as well as JCPenney and Dillard's at Richmond Mall). The big-box stores I found surprising that Richmond doesn't have are Target, Home Depot, and Sam's Club. I also noticed, like many other medium sized towns, Richmond has a lot of strip malls with smaller store spaces. I suspect this is a major reason why the interior of the Richmond Mall seems to be struggling as much as it is. At least in my opinion, it seems either downsizing the enclosed mall portion and bringing in more larger stores or opening the interior up to more mixed-use businesses (such as offices, gyms, and community centers as well as stores) would be best for the Richmond Mall.

Thanks to a viewer submission, we received a copy of the 1974 directory of Richmond Square Mall. The stores at the time are listed below...

Department stores

JC Penney Co.

Montgomery Ward

F.W. Woolworth Co.

Smaller store

Ten Speed Drive bicycle

Bartel & Rohe Gifts

Jo Ann Fabrics

First Lady Beauty Salon

Harris Paul Stores

Gallenkamp Shoes

Singer sewing center

Thrift Drug Store

The Second National Bank Of Richmond

Loehr's men's clothes

Cygnet Shop women's clothes

Sycamore Shop men's clothes

Household Finance Corp.

MCL Cafeteria

National Shirt Shop

The Golden Rule

Olan Mills Studio

Hanover Shoes

House of Better Vision

Zales Jewelers

Top Value Stamps

Brook's Fashions

Brook's Shoe Dept.

Thom McAn shoes

Spencer Gifts

Radio Shack

Stuart's Women's Apparel

Neumode Hosiery

Kirby's Barber Shop

Nature Food Centre

Pop Shop Tape Center (records)

Kroger grocery store

This mall was one that seemed hard to find information on, at least information that is available free and online. For one, this mall doesn't even have a Wikipedia page (which most malls this size have). There doesn't seem to be many news articles on the mall and the little information in those articles, such as the date built and square footage, I could only validate with an old SEC filing from Simon Malls. If anybody reading this notices any omissions or has more to add to this incomplete history of the Richmond Square Mall / Richmond Mall please email me or comment below.

The former Sears store is on the left side of this photo and the main mall corridor goes off to the right. Hibbett Sports is also on the right of this shot but the entrance faces towards the main corridor and not towards this smaller one.

Some empty stores covered by drywall and photos.

I really do like how the skylights look in this mall. The floor in this mall used to be tile until this new carpeting was put in.

The middle of the mall, facing towards the former Sears.

JCPenney mall entrance. The logo seems a bit off, perhaps the text was put in bold?

Walled off corridor and former entrance to the junior anchor space. OfficeMax is on the other side of this wall. OfficeMax does not have an entrance into the mall.

Mall corridor and exit near JCPenney.

GNC, American Eagle, and Victoria's Secret.

American Eagle Outfitters

Victoria's Secret and Maurices

Mall corridor

Christopher & Banks

benches

Mall corridor, facing JCPenney...

Creative Eyebrows

Dillard's mall entrance.

Nirvana

Rogers Jewelers

FinishLine

Justice

Middle mall corridor facing the front.

FinishLine window display

Shoebilee!

Center of the mall, facing towards Dillard's.

Bath & Body Works

Former Sears mall entrance

Hibbett Sports

heading outside...

This pigeon in the trash can jumped out and startled me!

Closed exterior stores

mall entrance near former Sears (north)

main mall entrance. The space to the left is a former Garfield's restaurant.

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Some pictures are from Bing Maps and Google Maps. Pictures from other sources are labeled as being from other sources. All other photos are copyright of Dead and Dying retail. If you use some pictures or posts from this blog make sure you include Dead and Dying retail as the source of them.